V'Hu Aḫer

As has been mentioned of Gamaliel, the Jews remembered (second-hand) the careers of hundreds of late Second Temple rabbis whom the gentiles remember, if at all, likewise secondarily. Let's talk about An Other One - Aḫer (Akher), in Hebrew.

I found out about Aḫer in Amir Aczel's book on The Mystery of Aleph. The second chapter hints at the Jewish mystic tradition as a bridge between the Pythagorean societies of the ancient Greeks, and mathematically-minded Christian theologians of High Mediaeval Europe. This chapter does not, unfortunately, make that case - nor any case. This chapter is (by far) the weakest in the book, and I am reliably informed it turns Christian readers away from the subsequent chapters, which are better. But anyway.

The Jews have a curse for those they dislike most: "may his name be erased". In olden times the Jews chose to distort the names of false gods: thus Syrian "Baal" became "Bosheth" and the Tyrian-Carthaginian "Molok" became "Molech". Later they (famously) renamed Jesus "Bar Panthera". "Aḫer" is another one of those heretics and/or apostates from Judaism - in this case, identified with Elisha Ben Abuyah.

Elisha is a name Biblical-enough; I am less certain of his patronymic, from Abuyah. I will assuredly find that someone has proposed a Hebrew etymology but, to me, it sounds Aramaeoid or Iranian. Syrian and early Islamic texts are full of names like Marduwayh, Shiroë, Babaë, maybe even Penkaye. Orthographies are not standard: Syriac and Persian are both long-running languages each with their own dialects in this place or at that time.

In Syriac, the "Jacobite" dialects underwent the so-called Canaanite Shift of long A to long O. My guess would be, some time between the 200s and 500s AD. After that, Jacobite communities entered the East, where lived Aramaeans who did not take this shift and refused the theology of Jacob Bar Addai. The Aramaic(s) which influenced the Qur'an, also, had not taken this shift (per Mingana: pdf). Jews, especially those still in the west, can be expected to turn Aramaic to that shift. So let us propose Elisha as a man from the Galilee.

Elisha earned a mention in Mishnah - one mention, Pirkei Avot 4:20. Up to the end of the second century AD, the Jews did not consider Elisha outside the mainstream - as contrast Bar Panthera. Jewish tradition has since become unclear about what "Aḫer" actually taught.

The story which Aczel relates comes from the two Talmuds, on the "Hagiga" tractate. Each quotes from the Gamara:

Ben Azzai glimpsed at the Divine Presence and died. And with regard to him the verse states: “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His pious ones” (Psalms 116:15). Ben Zoma glimpsed at the Divine Presence and was harmed, i.e., he lost his mind. And with regard to him the verse states: “Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you become full from it and vomit it” (Proverbs 25:16). Aḥer chopped down the shoots of saplings. In other words, he became a heretic. Rabbi Akiva came out safely.

In the Iraqi Talmud (which is all Aczel knows), Aḫer's heresy was dualism. In those days, Iraqi Jews lived under Iranian government. The Iranians viewed their own "Zoroastrianism" as the Aryan religion, to be imposed on fellow Aryans, like in central Asia, and soon enough over Armenia. I don't read that the Magi molested the Semites in Iraq much, except to quash revolts. But then, in the 200s AD, came the Manichees. Those were always on the lookout to poach Christians (at least) for their own. It is not hard to imagine Manichees recruiting Jews too. Manichaeanism is, notoriously, dualist and gnostic.

The Palestinian Talmud proposes something wholly different: theodicy. Its Elisha observes that those who break the Torah often get away with it. The stated backdrop is the persecutions under Roman government; of whose emperors, Hadrian is named.

I cannot but think of Ibn Sayyad in Islam: a sort of bogeyman, an archetypal agent of the Satan on Earth whose heresies tempt the faithful. The content of the heresies shifts depending on the needs of the community. In Palestine, Jews worried about Roman brutality; in Iraq, they worried about Manichaean seductions. Each local ghetto constructed its Aḫer accordingly.

As for what Elisha taught in life: G-d knows best. It may just be that he was forgotten, except for his patronymic and that one line in the Pirkei Avot. The later rabbis, warning against heresies from within, needed famous names to attach to their moralising stories. For the archetype of the philosopher whose musings lead astray, they ran with Elisha.